CHAPTER 82 — UNDERSTANDING

Only a few days had passed since Percy returned from death.

Holar Jun had told him to rest.

Eleanor had told him the same thing.

Elizabeth Olsen had ordered him to rest.

The healers had specifically instructed him to leave his bed as little as possible.

Clara had looked him directly in the face and repeated all of it once more.

Percy had listened carefully to every one of them.

Then he caught Eleanor in the back garden.

“Auntie.”

Eleanor answered without stopping.

“No.”

Percy's steps slowed.

“You don't even know what I'm going to say.”

“It's written on your face.”

“What's on my face?”

“The expression you use when you want something.”

Percy remained silent for several seconds, then tried to change his expression.

Eleanor looked at him.

“Now it's worse.”

Percy gave up.

“I need your help.”

This time, Eleanor stopped.

Percy's voice was still cheerful, but the same lightness was not in his eyes.

“I need to get used to my new flame.”

Eleanor's expression grew serious.

Percy placed a hand over his chest.

The Flame of the Chaos Fire Dragon was there.

He could no longer feel his old fire. Before, he would guide his Orin, turn it into flame, and control what he created.

Now none of those stages were the same.

The flame already existed inside his Core.

It was quiet.

But it was not sleeping.

It moved when Percy breathed, touched the Orin flowing through his veins, and altered the entire current around itself.

“I can use twenty percent of it,” Percy said. “But using something and understanding it aren't the same.”

Eleanor raised an eyebrow. That sounded far too much like something Holar might say.

“What do you want to do?”

“First, learn to control it.”

“And then?”

A small smile appeared on Percy's face.

“Advance my level.”

Eleanor's expression changed immediately.

“You died only a few days ago.”

“I'm alive now.”

“I'm aware.”

“My Core is stable.”

“I'm aware of that too.”

“Then—”

“Percy.”

Percy fell silent.

Eleanor studied him for several seconds.

“Do you honestly think you're ready?”

This time, Percy did not smile.

“I don't know.”

Eleanor had not expected that answer.

“That's why I need your help. If I'm not ready, you'll stop me. If I lose control, you'll pull me back.”

“What if I can't?”

Percy looked at her.

“You can.”

The answer did not come from confidence in his own power.

It came from his trust in Eleanor.

She took a deep breath.

“First, you control your new flame.”

Percy's face lit up.

“Then we'll look at your Core.”

“Alright.”

“You will not attempt to advance until I say so.”

“Alright.”

“The moment you feel pain, you tell me.”

Percy paused for a fraction of a second.

Eleanor narrowed her eyes.

“Percy.”

“I'll tell you.”

“Don't lie.”

“I'll tell you, Auntie.”

Eleanor shook her head.

“Wait in the training grounds. I'll speak to Holar and join you.”

Percy immediately started away.

Eleanor called after him.

“Don't run.”

Percy slowed.

Three steps later, he sped up again.

“PERCY.”

“I'M WALKING!”

“THAT IS NOT HOW WALKING WORKS!”

Clara found Holar Jun beside the stone table on the other side of the house.

Holar was looking at the Shiri before him. Reports from the northern front were still being updated after the deaths of the four King Monsters.

He closed the screen when Clara approached.

“Grandpa.”

“Clara.”

Clara hid her empty hand behind her back.

She was still not using Percy's old wand. She had fought without one in the tournament and guided her light directly through her body.

But she did not know whether that was the right method.

“Will you train with me?”

Holar did not answer.

Clara waited.

“Percy is going to work with his new flame. I want to understand my Light Form better. I used it in the tournament, but I still don't fully understand how I did it.”

The excitement on Clara's face faded beneath Holar's gaze.

“We need to talk first.”

Holar gestured toward the chair opposite him.

“Sit.”

Clara slowly sat down.

Holar considered his words for several seconds.

Speaking before the world was not difficult for him. He could stand before armies, give orders to councils, and bear the consequences of decisions that would reach millions of people.

Yet what he needed to say to the little girl before him was more difficult than all of it.

“I may have treated you harshly.”

Clara's fingers locked together.

“Grandpa...”

“Not may have.” Holar corrected himself. “I treated you harshly.”

Clara lowered her eyes toward the table.

She remembered the day Percy left. Holar's face. His voice. The moment she felt, for the first time, that there was no place in that house that belonged to her.

“It doesn't matter,” Clara said. “Percy recovered. He's alright. That's what matters.”

“It matters.”

Clara raised her head.

Holar's voice was not harsh, but it was absolute.

“Percy is my grandson. I thought I had lost him. I was angry. I was afraid. And I directed those things at you.”

Clara's face fell.

“I made a mistake.”

“You did.”

Holar did not deny it.

“But your mistake did not make the way I treated you right.”

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Clara's eyes began to fill.

Holar continued.

“You are every bit as much my granddaughter as Percy is my grandson.”

Clara stopped breathing.

Holar did not look away.

“I should not have done it.”

Clara lowered her head. The first tear fell onto the stone table.

Percy had opened the door of this house to her.

At first, she had called Holar Grandpa as a joke, just to annoy Percy. She liked making him angry.

But over time, the word had changed.

Holar had truly become her grandfather.

When Percy left, Clara had not thought she was losing only Percy. She thought she had lost this home as well.

Eleanor.

Holar.

Her family.

“I hurt you too,” Clara said.

“You did.”

Her shoulders dropped a little further.

Holar reached out and rested a hand on her head.

“Families hurt one another.”

Clara looked at him.

“What happens after that?”

“They talk.”

“What if they can't?”

A brief pain appeared in Holar's eyes.

“They learn before it is too late to talk.”

Clara understood what he meant and slowly nodded.

Holar stood.

“Wait here.”

“Where are you going?”

“To bring something.”

He entered the house and returned several minutes later carrying a narrow, dark-colored box. He set it before Clara.

She looked at the box, then at Holar.

“What is this?”

“Yours.”

Clara opened the small clasp.

Inside lay a slender wand, thirteen point four centimeters long.

Its body was pale white. At first glance, the surface appeared completely smooth, but when light touched it, golden veins emerged within.

A small transparent piece rested at the end of the handle. A very faint light pulsed inside, as though a tiny heart continued to live there.

Clara looked at Holar without touching it.

“You bought this for me?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Your birthday passed.”

Clara's expression changed.

“I didn't buy you a present, because of the circumstances you know.”

Percy leaving. Clara hurting herself. Leon. Then Percy's death.

He did not name any of it.

He did not need to.

Clara looked at the wand again.

“What is it made from?”

“The heart of a King Monster.”

Her hand stopped in midair.

“A King Monster?”

“It will help you use your light attributes more comfortably. It will reduce energy loss and allow you not merely to guide light, but to feel it more clearly while it moves.”

Clara frowned.

“But my Light affinity is already one hundred percent, Grandpa.”

“Your affinity is one hundred percent.”

“Then why—”

“Possessing one hundred percent affinity does not mean you understand light one hundred percent.”

Clara fell silent.

Holar gestured toward the wand.

“Someone who builds a thing from nothing advances while understanding every stage. When one piece is set incorrectly, they know why it is wrong, because they placed it with their own hands.”

“I didn't place mine.”

“No. You were given foundational knowledge. Doors were opened. Light accepted you.”

Holar looked into her eyes.

“But a door opening for you does not mean you understand everything behind it.”

Clara looked at the wand again.

“Take it,” Holar said.

Clara extended her hand.

“And swing it.”

The moment her fingers touched the wand, the light inside her chest moved.

Clara's eyes widened.

White energy rose from her shoulders. Two vast wings formed behind her. A slender figure took shape between them, and the angelic silhouette surrounding Clara emerged.

The Daughter of Light.

Layers of light that increased her defense by sixty percent settled around her body. Energy that raised her offensive power by fifty percent spread into her arms. The two-percent movement rate of Light Form prepared to carry her.

But Clara did not grow tired.

During the tournament, maintaining this state had consumed energy continuously. She had felt every layer separately and needed to keep one from weakening while controlling another.

Now the light knew where it belonged.

Clara turned the wand to the right. The right wing of the angelic silhouette moved with it.

She raised the wand. Light gathered above her head without the slightest delay.

Clara's mouth parted slightly.

“It's easier.”

Holar nodded. “Again.”

Clara swept the wand.

Light left the space around her body, drew a narrow arc through the air before her, then returned.

Most of the energy had not been lost.

Clara could feel it clearly.

“I'm using much less energy.”

“Because you aren't forcing the light.”

Holar stood.

“You're beginning to understand its movement.”

Clara closed her eyes.

She could feel every particle of light passing through the wand. The energy she had once used as one immense whole now separated into countless smaller pieces.

They were not all going to the same place.

Some formed her defense. Some waited for her attack. Others prepared to carry her body into Light Form.

For the first time, Clara did not see only the result of her power.

She felt how it was made.

Clara opened her eyes. The wings of light waited calmly behind her.

She looked at Holar.

“Thank you, Grandpa.”

She withdrew her light and embraced him.

A small smile appeared on Holar's face. He lifted a hand toward her head.

Clara's fingers caught in his beard by accident. When she pulled back, his beard came with her.

“AAAGH!”

Clara released it immediately.

“I'M SORRY!”

Laughter rose from the other side of the garden.

“HAHAHAHAHA!”

Clara turned.

Percy stood beside Eleanor, clutching his stomach as he laughed at Holar's beard.

“Don't laugh, you awful Percy!”

Percy tried to regain control.

“Alright.”

He remained quiet for one second, looked at Holar's face again, and burst out laughing once more.

Clara pointed her wand at him. Percy immediately moved behind Eleanor.

“You're pointing your new weapon at an injured person.”

“You're not injured.”

“I died.”

Clara's face soured.

“There he goes again.”

Percy smiled. “Three days.”

“Are your three days never going to end?”

“Dying may have damaged my sense of time.”

Eleanor shook her head. Holar straightened his beard and looked at Percy.

“Weren't you going to train?”

Percy's laughter stopped at once.

“I am.”

“Then begin.”

Percy stepped out from behind Eleanor. Clara twirled her new wand in one hand.

“I'll watch too.”

Percy pointed at the wand.

“You will not use that against me.”

Clara smiled. “Maybe.”

“Cheater.”

Her smile grew.

Percy and Eleanor moved to the center of the training grounds. Holar and Clara remained at a distance.

Percy closed his eyes.

The Flame of the Chaos Fire Dragon burned at the center of his Core.

His affinity was twenty percent.

But this flame was completely different from the fire he had used before.

His old flame had been easy to enlarge. He gave it more Orin and created more fire.

Giving this flame more energy did not merely make it larger.

It made it denser.

Heavier.

Hotter.

More dangerous.

Percy opened his palm. A dark red flame appeared. Thin lines, almost black, moved around it. Though small, the heat it released was several times greater than that of his old fire.

Eleanor pointed toward the stone target before him.

“Strike it.”

Percy launched the flame.

The moment the dark red fire touched the stone, half the target melted.

Clara's eyes widened. Percy's satisfaction disappeared at once.

“Too much.”

Eleanor nodded. “Far too much.”

Percy looked at a new target.

“Again.”

The second flame was smaller. It did not melt the stone, but left a deep scorch across the surface.

“Again.”

The third attack burned only the outer layer. The fourth pierced one small point. The fifth passed around the stone and struck the target behind it.

Percy tried the same thing again and again.

Instead of enlarging the flame, he made it smaller. Rather than reducing the amount of energy, he compressed the same power into a narrower area.

Then he did the opposite.

Instead of keeping the heat in one point, he spread it across a broad surface.

One attack burned the target. Another disrupted only the layer of Orin around it. The next dispersed the energy coating the stone without damaging the stone itself.

Eleanor watched closely.

“You must not use this flame only to burn.”

Percy nodded. “I know.”

“It is far more dangerous than your ordinary fire.”

“I know that too.”

“One instant of lost control could kill the person before you.”

Percy looked at the flame in his palm.

“Then I won't lose control.”

Eleanor frowned.

“Believing you won't lose control is not control.”

Percy looked at her.

“Control is recognizing the moment you begin to lose it.”

Percy remained silent for a while, then extinguished the flame.

“Again.”

The training continued for a long time.

Each time Percy formed the flame, he spent a little less energy and guided it a little more precisely.

But his twenty-percent affinity did not change.

That number represented how much of the power he could approach.

Not how well he could use it.

Percy was preparing another attack when Eleanor raised her arm.

He stopped.

There was a thin cut across Eleanor's forearm. It was not deep, but a line of dried blood remained on her skin.

Percy frowned.

“Auntie.”

“What?”

“Your arm.”

Eleanor looked down. “It's nothing.”

“How did it happen?”

“I didn't notice while you were in that condition. Something cut me.”

Percy moved beside her. Eleanor pulled her arm back.

“There's no need.”

Percy caught her wrist.

“Percy.”

“Absolute Heal.”

White light spread from his palm. The cut closed. The dried blood disappeared. Eleanor's skin returned to the way it had been before the injury.

She sighed.

“I said there was no need.”

Percy did not answer.

A new message had appeared before his eyes.

[ABSOLUTE HEAL USED.]

[COOLDOWN: 2 YEARS.]

Percy's face froze.

Eleanor noticed.

“What happened?”

Percy looked at his other abilities.

[ABSOLUTE CANCEL]

[COOLDOWN: 1 MONTH.]

Then the third appeared.

[ABSOLUTE PUNISHMENT]

[COOLDOWN: 7 YEARS.]

Percy said nothing for a long time.

Clara approached them.

“Percy?”

“I can't use Absolute Heal again for two years.”

Clara stopped. She looked at Eleanor's healed arm, then back at Percy.

“Two years?”

Percy nodded.

“Absolute Cancel is one month.”

Holar asked, “The other one?”

Percy's eyes shifted to the last message.

“Absolute Punishment is seven years.”

Silence fell over the training grounds.

Seven years.

Percy was seven years old now. The next time he could use that ability, he would be twice his current age.

Eleanor looked at her arm.

“That is why I said there was no need.”

Percy looked at it too.

“You were hurt.”

“It was a small cut.”

“It still hurt.”

Eleanor could not be angry with him.

Clara, meanwhile, watched Percy's face. Once, he had used Absolute Heal for even her smallest injuries.

Now that power was gone for two years.

Percy placed a hand over his chest.

“Aunt Eleanor.”

“What?”

“Will you support me?”

Eleanor understood what he wanted.

“Now?”

Percy nodded. “I can advance to the next level.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

“Percy, you only just learned the cooldowns of your Absolute abilities. We don't know what this new flame is doing to your body.”

“That's why I need your support.”

Eleanor looked into his eyes.

Percy was not afraid.

But he was not careless either.

For the first time, the difference between the two was this clear.

Eleanor moved before him.

“The moment you lose control, we stop.”

“Alright.”

“The moment I say so, you cut off the energy.”

“Alright.”

“You will not hide the pain.”

Percy paused for the briefest moment.

“Percy.”

“I won't hide it.”

Eleanor placed both hands on his shoulders.

“Begin.”

Percy closed his eyes and looked into his Core.

The Flame of the Chaos Fire Dragon burned at its center.

Percy guided his Orin toward it.

The flame moved.

Heat spread first through his chest, then his shoulders, arms, legs, and neck.

His body temperature began to rise.

Thirty degrees.

Forty.

Eleanor's hands remained on his shoulders.

Forty-five.

Fifty.

Clara stepped forward.

“Grandpa...”

Holar raised a hand.

“Wait.”

Fifty-five.

The air around Percy trembled. Grass dried beneath his feet, and the surfaces of nearby stones darkened.

Sixty degrees.

That was when Percy noticed something.

Eleanor's hands were not burning. Her palms remained against his shoulders without the slightest redness.

Percy spoke without opening his eyes.

“I'm harmless to the people I love, Auntie.”

For an instant, the worry left Eleanor's face. Her eyes softened.

“I want to eat this child.”

Clara turned toward her immediately.

“Auntie!”

Eleanor began laughing. The corner of Percy's mouth curved.

Clara's face reddened slightly.

Holar watched the three of them.

For the first time in days, he saw the same familiar scene: Percy doing something, Clara getting angry with him, Eleanor laughing, and the house filling with noise again.

They were returning to themselves.

The energy beneath Eleanor's hands suddenly surged. Her smile disappeared.

“Percy.”

He returned his full attention to his Core.

Chaos flame had spread through every energy pathway.

Percy did not suppress it.

Nor did he set it free.

He chose the path it would follow.

Eleanor slowly increased the Orin flowing from outside. She gave Percy's Core no more than it could carry.

After every wave of energy, she waited.

Percy's temperature remained fixed at sixty degrees.

It did not rise.

It did not fall.

Chaos flame began circling his Core. With every revolution, it pressed slightly harder against the old boundary.

Percy clenched his teeth.

Eleanor noticed.

“Does it hurt?”

“Yes.”

“Are we stopping?”

Percy looked at his Core. The boundary had cracked, but it was not collapsing.

“No.”

“Are you certain?”

“Yes.”

Another wave of energy arrived.

Chaos flame entered the fracture.

Dark red fire covered Percy's entire body.

Clara raised her wand. Wings of light opened behind her.

But the flame did not move toward her. It did not touch Eleanor. It did not burn Holar's clothes.

The fire remained only around Percy.

A cracking sound rang out.

It was not Percy's Core that had broken.

It was the old boundary surrounding it.

Chaos fire withdrew from his body and returned directly to the center of his Core.

His temperature began to fall.

Fifty.

Forty.

Thirty.

Eleanor did not remove her hands from his shoulders.

Percy slowly opened his eyes.

[ADVANCED CORE: LEVEL TWO → LEVEL THREE]

[FLAME OF THE CHAOS FIRE DRAGON]

[AFFINITY: 20%]

His affinity had not increased.

But his Core had grown.

Percy opened his palm. The dark red flame appeared again.

This time, the air around it did not distort. The grass did not dry. The stones did not darken.

All its heat remained contained inside the tiny flame in Percy's hand.

Eleanor watched carefully.

“How do you feel?”

Percy considered it for several seconds.

“Hungry.”

Clara's face fell.

“Don't turn into Nathaniel.”

Percy extinguished the flame.

“I came back from death and advanced a level. I can eat.”

Holar stood.

“Bed rest.”

The smile on Percy's face froze.

“Grandpa.”

“To bed.”

“But I advanced.”

“I noticed.”

“I'm at Advanced Core Level Three.”

“I noticed that too.”

“I'm stronger.”

Holar approached him.

“Strong enough to go to bed.”

Percy prepared to answer. Holar lifted him from the ground and carried him in his arms.

Percy's mouth fell open.

“I CAN WALK!”

“I know.”

“I'M NOT A BABY!”

“I know that too.”

Holar started toward the house.

Clara burst out laughing.

Percy turned his head.

“Don't laugh, you awful Clara!”

Clara spun her new wand through the air. The wings of light behind her opened again with almost no energy cost.

“Alright.”

She stayed quiet for one second, looked at Percy in Holar's arms, and laughed harder.

Percy sulked.

As Eleanor followed them, she looked at her healed arm.

Clara held her new wand tightly. Percy continued protesting in Holar's arms.

Both of them had grown stronger today.

But something else mattered more to Holar and Eleanor.

The house was noisy again.

And this time, neither of them complained.